I'm slow in posting this (political campaigning leaves me cold), but here's the WashTimes description from yesterday of a mayoral candidates forum it recently held, "Candidates Revisit Baseball Deal." Michael Brown's "plan" to halt construction on South Capitol Street and move the stadium to RFK (giggle, chortle) was attacked, and Adrian Fenty said that although he voted against the stadium plan, as mayor it would be his job to make it a success.

Yeah, I ranted a few hours ago about how I wouldn't be taking photos of the stadium every five minutes. But that fit of pique ran right up against the fact that it's been two weeks since I ventured up to my South Capitol Street perch, and the construction is really starting to look like, well, a baseball stadium. So I took a couple of new shots and added them to the Stadium Construction Photo Gallery. While I'm never going to be as up-to-date as the stadium webcam, I do have one leg up on it: different angles :-).

As promised by EYA, a sign announcing the impending Capitol Quarter project at Capper/Carrollsburg has indeed gone up at 4th and L, next to the soon-to-be-sales-center trailers. And with perhaps a stronger level of urgency now felt, the molasses-like demolition of the old Capper buildings on the block bounded by 3rd, 4th, I, and K has shifted into a higher gear, with one of the interior buildings finally demolished this week and demolition underway on the buildings facing 3rd Street. Photos of these terribly important developments are now on my Capper photos page. (I guess I might have to start transitioning out of calling this area Capper/Carrollsburg....)

Just a small reminder/plea.... Construction at the stadium is proceeding briskly, and people are of course very excited about it. However, my goal at this site is really to document an overall feel of change, not necessarily every single iota of progress. I'm getting e-mails from people along the lines of "you should know they poured another concrete pillar today" (a bit of an exaggeration, but not as much as you might think). If you want minute-by-minute views of the stadium's construction, the Clark/Hunt/Smoot Stadium Construction Webcam is the site for you. I'll continue to take photos every few weeks as I always have and put those on my Stadium Construction Photo Gallery, so that you can see how the blocks are transforming, but bookmark the webcam if you're wanting more.

A short blurb from Friday's Post: "D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi asked the city's attorney general yesterday to rule on the legality of a plan for a private developer to build a mix of parking garages, condominiums and shops adjacent to the new baseball stadium. In a two-page letter, Gandhi expressed concern that the plan would violate the $611 million stadium cost cap adopted by the D.C. Council and a ban on using the money the city would receive from development rights near the stadium to build the garages. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and other city officials are aiming to complete an agreement by Sept. 1 with developer Herbert S. Miller to build the garages and condos." (Boy, I've enjoyed these past few weeks without any news on this. But I'm guessing next week this'll be back with a vengeance. Blech.)

The parade of alley closings and street closings/realignments this year in Near Southeast continues, as the National Capital Planning Commission has on its September meeting agenda the proposed closing of a public alley in Square 701 (the square bounded by 1st, M, N and Half Streets, SE--see my cruddy tax parcel map for assistance on where the squares are). I figured that this was going to be the alleys in the footprint of the Monument/WMATA properties, since Monument has made clear it's plans to move forward with developing the land along Half Street, but instead I find out that the alley closings being requested are on the east side of the Square, between Cushing Place and 1st Street, where the land is owned by the Cohen and Camalier families, who have said little about their plans for these properties. Does this mean we'll be seeing development coming to 1st Street south of M soon, too? And believe it or not, as I was writing this very entry, I received word that Monument has now filed it's application for alley closings on the west side of Square 701 as well as one small alley on Square 700 (behind the Amoco Station). Note that neither of these applications request closings of Van or Cushing. These applications follow successful alley closing requests already this year for Square 0743N as part of the 100 M and 1100 1st Street projects, the street/alley closings for the new ballpark, and the closed alleys and new streets for Capper/Carrollsburg--plus there are the still-pending requests to realign the streets in Square 737 in preparation for William C. Smith's big mixed-use project at 2nd and H and the Lerners' request to close a small portion of an alley in Square 697 as part of their 1000 South Capitol office project (no bills for these yet appearing in the DC Council legislation database).

Within the last 24 hours, two well-appointed cream-colored trailers (or small manufactured homes, if you prefer) have been deposited on the now-cleared-and-smoothed lot at 4th and L, smack dab in the middle of Capper/Carrollsburg. I have no information, I'm merely speculating, but these trailers look very much like the trailers that developers use to house Sales Centers before a project's construction begins. And EYA's Capitol Quarter info page still says "Coming Fall 2006." And it's almost fall. Make of it what you will. And I'll see if EYA has anything they'd like to share. Again, I know nothing for sure, I'm just passing along what I saw. UPDATE: EYA confirms to me that the trailers are indeed for the Sales Center, and that a sign should be installed this week as well, with construction on the Sales Center to begin within a week or two. And, if this is a project that you are interested in, I'd suggest registering on EYA's web site to be contacted with more information when the time comes--people on those types of lists tend to get first crack at the offerings.

I've been told by Opus East, the developer of 100 M Street, that the work being done along 1st and along M this past week or so has been the capping of the utilities in preparation for demolition, which should be starting next week (the week of Aug. 28).

Today's Washington Times reports that DC mayoral candidate Michael Brown has vowed to "stop construction of the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium on South Capitol Street and instead would refurbish RFK Stadium for the team." He will apparently be holding a press conference this week to detail his plans. Additionally: "Mr. Brown acknowledged the apparent difficulties in gaining the approval of all interested parties for a new stadium deal but said he can do it. 'I didn't say it was easy, and there are a lot of different moving pieces.' " In other the-stadium-is-a-boondoggle highlights from the weekend, the WashTimes editorial board compares the financing for the new Yankee stadium to what DC "negotiated" to get the Nats to DC (i.e., stop pointing the gun at us, Bud, we'll give you everything you want, just so you'll finally put a team in one of the biggest markets in the country), but also uses it to once again castigate the Lerners for standing in the way of the city's desire to recoup some money by building the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness. In addition, local muckraking institution DC Watch has had much discussion from its readers over the past few weeks about the stadium and it's financing, and addresses it specifically in its current issue.

I don't post most crimes reported in Near Southeast, because in the months that I've been watching the stats (at crimereports.com and now crimeindc.org) they've all been pretty much car thefts or thefts from cars, which I don't reproduce here because you'd all die of boredom. But here's a good one: on Thursday Aug. 17 at 9:11 pm in the 1000 block of South Capitol Street SE, "c3 was approached by c1/2 in reference to an incident that occurred on a previous day. c1 then attacked c3 pulling c3's hair extensions out [emphasis mine]. c1 at this time began punching c3 about the body with closed fists. witnesses separated c1/2 from c3." This was actually reported as an Assault With a Deadly Weapon--was that the fists or the extensions? (On a more serious note, while this is technically across the Great Divide and out of my purview, I'll link to this story about a shooting on Friday night at 1st and P SW, because the Post couldn't stop mentioning how close it is to the new stadium site.)

From today's Washington Business Journal print version (available online to subscribers only for 30 days), news that Monument Realty, which owns most of the land facing Half Street between M and N not controlled by WMATA, has stopped waiting for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation to get the Ballpark District rolling and has submitted an unsolicited proposal directly to WMATA to incorporate the Navy Yard Station's Half-and-M entrance and the adjacent WMATA parking lot into an office building that Monument wants to build. Metro then put out a Request for Proposals so that other developers could bid on the land (bids are due by 3 pm Aug. 21). If Monument's bid is successful, they say they can move forward "more promptly" with their plans for an office building with ground floor retail at that spot. AWC doesn't really seem all that concerned; Adrian Washington is quoted as saying "Our goal is to redevelop the ballpark district. We're fine either way." Monument, which would manage the government-funded $15 million expansion of the Metro station, says that they need to get control of the property ASAP in order to be able to have the station upgrades completed by Opening Day 2008. The article also notes that AWC expects to have a land disposition agreement completed by next month for Forest City Washington to purchase a portion of the WASA land at 1st and O; but color me a bit skeptical on timeline announcements from AWC these days.

This is a little old at this point, but here's the prepared remarks of CFO Natwar Gandhi when he testified before the council's Committee on Economic Development on July 6 about his concerns with Herb Miller's proposal for the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness.

It appears that the work being done at 1st and M (wrapping back toward L Street) is plumbing/pipe work of some sort under the street and sidewalks, not any-second-now demolition of On Luck and the other buildings (although I imagine that's not far behind, given that construction on 100 M Street is supposed to start "late summer 2006" according to Opus East). And the Sunoco station at 50 M Street is indeed now being dismantled. But still no announcement of any big deal for that lot.

With 20 M Street and Capper Seniors #2 both in the midst of the Speedy, Obvious Progress Being Made phase, I'm taking a lot of pictures of them, and so have posted new photos yet again. And since I got a wide-angle lens for my birthday last week, you'll note that some of the pictures have a different look to them than my usual fare. No, the buildings aren't in danger of falling over, it's just the lens doing what's necessary to get a 10-story building into frame from a vantage point across the street, rather than three blocks away :-).

There was no way I could pass up the unbelievable weather on Saturday, so I wandered down to the stadium site to take a bunch of new pictures. Initial construction has gotten underway at 1st and O, and is now rounding the corner at 1st and P and heading west. This is just a one-story concrete structure at this point, and you can see from the other pillars driven into the ground that it's the horseshoe outline of the southern side of the park.

Eagle-eyed boots on the ground report seeing the appearance today of No Parking signs along M Street between New Jersey and 1st Street--in front of On Luck, Zohery Bus Tours, and the Metro entrance--marked as lasting from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30. Dovetailing with what I've heard elsewhere, this may well mean that demolition on that corner is about to start. (I would guess that it will happen the same time along the rest of that block of 1st Street, back to L Street.) This is to clear the way for the 100 M Street office building and the 1100 First Street residential tower, which will be built concurrently. Some folks have also mentioned the fence that has gone up today around the Sunoco station at 50 M--there's still been no word on the sale of that property, so I don't know if demolition is imminent there or not. UPDATE: I went and took a look myself, and there are also No Parking signs along the eastern side of 1st Street between L and M, marked as starting August 8 through December 8. Also, the Sunoco fences also have signs on them indicating that it is a Sunoco construction zone. Perhaps Sunoco is demolishing the station themselves--but to make way for what, we all want to know? Is it the rumored hotel? Will the hotel folks be buying the land, or is Sunoco keeping the land and handling the development themselves? We shall see....

The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation has posted a PDF of a presentation from Wednesday's board meeting, with bullet-point updates about their initiatives, including the Southwest Waterfront, Poplar Point, Hill East, and of course, the "South Capitol Street Waterfront". Nothing really new in it regarding the Ballpark District, though I was little surprised to see a map they had (page 29 of the PDF) of the area that they have some sort of weird layout of the southeastern corner of the stadium site, with a big plaza that easily crosses over to the riverfront, and even shows P Street running halfway through the stadium site. Unless there's been some huge reconfiguration of the stadium design that I haven't yet heard about, methinks they're being a tad blue sky and are trying a bit too hard to turn the stadium into a "waterfront" ballpark. They've also got a watercolor on page 27 that doesn't even depict the stadium in its correct layout. There's a map at the top of my Ballpark District page, released by the AWC in Dec. 2005, that is I believe a more realistic rendering of how the stadium interacts with the waterfront; and page 15 of the DCSEC renderings presented to the Zoning Commission shows the design of the southern side of the stadium (but don't get me started on that blue-grey "future development" monstrosity shown on that slide--I'm guessing the ZC wouldn't be interested in approving THAT). Hopefully the long-awaited (and very long overdue) Ballpark District Master Plan will be released before too much longer, where we can see concrete designs of what they're anticipating.

This is nothing more than PURE RUMOR at this point, I have no confirmation, but I'm floating it out there to see if anyone can back it up or shoot it down. A source informs me that one of the nightclubs on the block bounded by Half, 1st, K, and L that was purchased in 2005 by developer Ron Cohen, has been given until Sept. 12 to close. Hope to be able to tell you more soon. If you have any scuttlebutt (on this or any other Near Southeast news, for that matter), drop me a line. UPDATE: I haven't been able to get any further confirmation on the above, but I'll note that the Holiday/Aspen cab company, located on this same block (at the corner of 1st and K), has closed up shop within the past week.

A number of correspondents have written in to alert me to work being done on a multi-unit building at 10th and L (or is it 10th and Potomac?). The interior's been gutted, and they appear to be renovating the entire building. I have no information on this--the building hasn't sold recently, nor (ahem) is there any building permit filed with the city. So I know nothing, but I appreciate the alerts.

The hot-off-the-presses Aug. 10 Voice of the Hill (PDF) has a front-page report about the efforts to save the 106-year-old Anacostia Community Boathouse, under threat because of the pending changes to the 11th Street Bridges. The boathouse is one of the two red-brick buildings that are on the Anacostia River shore, right in between the two bridge spans (the second building, which is not in danger of being demolished, was recently the recipient of a $300,000 grant from DDOT to help its renovation). The 11th Street Bridges Environmental Impact Study, currently underway, has ID'ed four different build options for the bridges (to better link them to the Anacostia Freeway), and three of those options impact the boathouse. Public comment on the EIS is being accepted until Aug. 28. UPDATE: Oops, should have included this link to the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association "Save the Boathouse" page.